From the executive producer of The O.C., Terminator: Salvation!

Is it ever a terrible thing — to maybe see (and expect) a piece of creative work to be horribad/terrific based solely on the previous works of whoever’s responsible?  Then again, for an after-school special, I WATCHED The O.C.

Right off the bat — I didn’t fancy Salvation — not that the franchise isn’t moving along as it should, but as Terminator fans, we’ve been spoiled by The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  That show is just so GOOD — raising expectations for a movie — you know, those things with the bigger budgets, bigger-named stars and just generally bigger resources (save for the amount of time for storytelling) to BE more than what a tv show is limited to.

For me, Salvation is pretty confused.  Is it a movie about John Connor kicking ass?  Is it a movie about new character Marcus being introduced, so that he could kick ass?  Is it a movie about Kyle Reese growing into his own?  Is it about a rebellion?  Is it about … Salvation?  That’s where it falls apart, for me — there’s only so much screentime, and too many stories to tell.  They did plan on creating a trilogy of these new Terminator films, so there’s still plenty of room, but really, would it have been possible to tell the story without, say, one of the x number of plot points?

We spend the first third (and a half!) of the film semi-guessing if it is, indeed, John-Connor-unleashing-some-Bale-istic fury unto the (presumably) hordes and hordes of Terminator units — instead, it’s about Marcus Wright, slowly demystifying for us, the audience, what he’s there for. His discovery?  —  a plot twist some must’ve seen coming, but serves as an interesting philosophical/ethical/moral dillema.  You’ll get it, if you watch it.

What makes the Terminator franchise so interesting, for me, at least — is the use of time travel as a plot device.  Is the Terminator timeline so convoluted with all the time jumps, and the movies, and the series?  YES.  Does it make for interesting robot-hunt-man technophobia?  YES.  Was it awesome seeing the same photograph from the first film, seeing John Connor listen to the tapes, references to “I’ll be back,” and “Come with me if you want to live”?  YES.  So why does Salvation keep forgetting several things already established in the previous movies?

Isn’t John Connor the founder of the rebellion?  Isn’t he a “good leader,” according to Reese from the first film?  Why does he have to defer to men in submarines?  Why does it take a hit from a shovel to make holes in Skynet’s flying dropship’s walls?  Why does disabling the “North Turret” (just one turret?!  really?) allow everyone to escape?  Where are the hordes of these Terminators?  We see 2 — 3 (if we’re lucky) T-600 units, and a giant monster-mech-of-sorts — and that’s it.  No more army of Terminators trying to eat you for breakfast.  These and several other questions remain suspended in the air.

Also, what is a Moon Bloodgood?  Kind of like a name to take if you want shiny vampires going out for your blood. :p

2/5

Also, in the trailer?  “We end this tonight!”  NO.  They did not end it that night, or on any nights close to that.  There’re two more movies to maybe sort that out — ’til then, watch it if you like seeing faces melted off, exposed robot endoskeleton underneath.

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Also, here’s what John Connor was up to for the first 2/3rds of the film: